Lack of facilities and boredom are among the reasons young people in Wexford misuse drugs, community workers have found.Services that give young people alternative ways to socialise are called for in an action plan to tackle drugs misuse in the county, published last week.
The plan, drawn up by the Co Wexford Community-Based Drugs Initiative (CBDI), also proposes steps to raise awareness about drugs misuse among 10- to 13-year-olds. A workshop organised by the group last year concluded that some young children were already experimenting in drugs.
It also found that people aged between 18 and 25 were "targets" in both urban and rural areas, and were vulnerable to the possibility of misusing drugs. As well as lack of facilities and boredom, the availability of drugs, their social acceptability and the fact that young people had money to spend, were cited as factors.
The action plan, "Responding to Substance Misuse in our Communities", was launched in Wexford by the Minister of State with responsibility for the National Drugs Strategy, Mr Eoin Ryan.
It was only through a joint effort between local communities and the State that we would begin to address the problem of drug misuse at grassroots level, he said.
The CBDI plan draws on several sources to provide a picture of the extent of drugs misuse in Wexford. In 2000, 135 people attended community counselling services in the county run by the South Eastern Health Board.
A third of these were aged between 20 and 29 and a further 30 per cent were in their 30s. In 80 per cent of cases, the main drug of misuse was alcohol.Almost 30 per cent of those attending health board treatment services were unemployed, and 77 per cent were male.